Maine Democrat Emily Cain, seen here bowing her head in prayer at the Franco American Heritage Center’s monthly La Rencontre last month, is running in a district where Trump is beating Clinton. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

Even before Donald Trump became the GOP presidential nominee, House Democrats heralded Hillary Clinton’s candidacy as the key to winning battleground races in all manner of swing districts.

With five weeks to go before Election Day, Democrats are still waiting for Donald Trump to create the nationwide swell that would be necessary to put the Republicans’ House majority into play. House races are often late to engage but, thus far, the developments have been a mixed bag for Democrats, keeping sizable gains out of reach.

The lack of vulnerable Democrats — and the resiliency of many Republican incumbents in the face of an unpopular presidential nominee — could amount to a historic election in the House, but not in the way one might think. The cycle could produce the fewest number of House seats to flip party control in 60 years.

Democrats are focusing on more suburban districts, where they believe changing demographics are moving seats into the Democratic column, in their effort to regain the majority in the House. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

As Democratic chances of taking back the House improve with the success of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, party strategists are trying to figure out exactly how and where it’s going to happen. It’s not too difficult to see Democrats gaining 10, or even 20, seats in November, but gaining the 30 required for a majority is more difficult and will require Democrats winning a large swath of seats where Republicans are currently heavy favorites.

Winning the House majority is more than focusing on the presidential margin and allotting House seats to Democrats because of the strength of some GOP incumbents. For example, Democrats are not going to defeat Republican Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo this year, even though President Barack Obama won New Jersey’s 2nd with 54 percent, or win New Jersey’s 3rd (which Obama won with 52 percent), where wealthy GOP Rep. Tom MacArthur could easily outspend any challenger.

The House Majority PAC, an outside group that supports Democrats running for the House, announced on Thursday five additional television reservations for the final weeks of the campaign, bringing its total reservations to more than $12.2 million so far.

"We will keep making wise investments that maximize the impact of our dollars and maximize the opportunities Democrats have to win in 2016,” House Majority PAC Executive Director Ali Lapp said in a statement.

Washington was apparently the place to be this week for Michigan state legislators running for Congress in 2016. But should they have been back in Michigan doing their jobs?

The National Republican Congressional Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee agree on that, it seems. Both groups blasted out emails within 30 minutes of each other attacking the opposing party's recruit for shirking their legislative duties to raise money in D.C.